What should have been a good year
by SlytherinsScribe
Summary: Set in Lily and the Marauders 7th year at Hogwarts, this is the story of how Lily finally fell in love with James and what it took to let her. This is a mix between a romance and humor fic. Rating is for mild language and character death. Hope you enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

I've read a lot of fanfics about how Lily and James got together, and this is what I think happened. It's a bit different from most I've seen. The rating is for mild language and character death(it mentions someone dying), just to be safe. This is only my second fanfic, please respond if you're nice, I don't like hate mail.

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is property of J.K. Rowling, not me. All recognizable Harry Potter stuff is not mine, but Maia and the plot are mine. Hope you enjoy!

"What do you mean he's head boy?" I said outraged to one of my best friend Maia.

I had just gotten to platform 9 3/4 and Maia had just told me I wasn't going to like the head boy, and she was right. She gave a plaintive look, "You know him, he's parading around with that stupid badge of his like he's a king."

I pulled my own head girl badge out of my pocket, and Maia realized how bad this was for me. I had only told her and Severus that I wanted badly to be head girl, make a name for myself. Now my dream had been ruined by _him_. I mean, he was never even a prefect. He had been getting in trouble since first year with his friends, only one of which I could stand to talk to. Remus Lupin, who had been prefect with me for the last two years.

"Lily!" I heard across the platform, it was Severus. I liked him since I was nine, as a friend only, partly because of the horrid group he hung out with.

"Hi Sev," I said sadly.

He cocked his head to the side, "What's wrong, aren't you head girl." Maia whispered in his ear.

He felt my pain and put a gentle hand on my shoulder, "Sorry, Lily." Severus was probably the only one who hated him more than me.

The train gave it's five minute to departure warning and the three of us climbed on to the train and began trying to find a compartment, and were lucky enough to find an empty one at the very back of the train. I slumped down by the window watching the station slip away, Severus across from me pretending to be watching out the window, but when he thought I wasn't looking he would stare at me. Maia was reading another of her weird books, I think it was called "100 ways to charm a wizard" or something silly to that effect.

Usually I rather enjoyed the train ride to Hogwarts, the excitement of new classes and spending time with Sev and Maia, but I was dreading the return. Having to talk to _him_ on a regular basis was going to be torture worse than 'Tuney complaining about how abnormal I am on a daily basis. I wanted to go to the headmaster and ask to be replaced as head girl, but then I would have to tell him why and 'I hate his guts' probably wouldn't be a satisfactory answer.

There was a loud knock before four boys burst in, the last closing the compartment door after him. The boy in front who was tall, lean, wore glasses and impossibly messy hair spoke loud, "Sorry to intrude, but every other compartment is full." It was _him._

The other three I didn't have to look at to see. One was a bit taller than the first, black hair and a laid back way of looking regal, Known as the hottie of seventh year and Sirius Black. Next was Remus Lupin, a smart yet shabby looking boy who tried to keep the first two out of trouble but never quite managed to. The last was a small nervous looking boy who treated the others like gods and reminded me of a rat in a way I couldn't explain, and this was Peter Pettigrew.

I pointedly looked out the window, Sev snarled in disgust and Maia couldn't seem to keep her eyes off of Sirius. Remus and Peter sat next to Sev, Sirius (to Maia's delight) set next to Maia, and _he_ sat next to me.

"Hey Evans, you hear that I'm head boy?" He said with a cocky grin I could see reflected in the window's glass.

"Who hasn't heard you're head boy?" I muttered under my breath.

"What was that Evans?" He asked putting a hand on my shoulder.

I pulled myself away from him and said, "I said, I don't think there's anyone who doesn't know because you've told everybody." Severus laughed, but a sharp look from _him_ and Serius silenced him.

"That isn't very head girlish of you Evans." He told me.

"You aren't exactly perfectly behaved yourself, Potter." I snapped.

He just grinned, "We're going to have to get along better than this now that we're head boy and girl, have to set a good example."

"I'll get along with you, Potter, when hell freezes over." I spat.

"Actually, I visited hell this summer, icicles everywhere," James said beaming putting his arm around my shoulder.

"Don't touch her!" Sev cried, and six wands were drawn. Severus' on James, James' and Serius' on him, mine at Serius, Remus' at me, and Maia's and Remus. Peter was cowering in the corner afraid someone's wand would be pointed at him. No one dared to move afraid of being hurt by another person's curse.

Then the door opened and the lady with the sweets called in, "Sweets for sale, anyone want to buy sweets," Her voice dropped seeing all the wands out, "I'll just go…" Then she closed the door and left.

We continued to stand like this a while until Severus put away his wand and left before James and his friends could do anything, and everyone but me put their wand away. He turned to see my wand inches from his face and seemed shocked, "What's wrong Evans?"

"Out." I said sternly, Sirius was about to object when, to my surprise, James motioned for all of them to leave. Remus and Serius were surprised as well, but left with James and Peter anyway, James left last and closed the door without looking back.

Maia was staring at me in awe, "Lily, you just told the head boy, the biggest prankster and egotistic jock in the school to leave and he listened to you!"

"So?" I said still angry at him for threatening one of my friends.

"James Potter doesn't listen to anyone, his fellow students, teachers, prefects, the headmaster, even his parents say his a bit wild, and he just listened to you, Lily!"

I didn't Like where she was going with this, "Meaning?"

"He likes you, Lily, he fancies you!" Maia cried, "And you two will make such a cute couple!"

"Maia, are you insane!" I shouted, "I'll never be friends with that pompous jerk, much less date the prat. You know I've always loathed Potter."

"But he doesn't loathe you.

"I don't care Maia, I will never like, nor love James Potter." I told her resolutely. She said fine and went back to reading her book, and I continued staring out the window until we got to Hogwarts.

I know it's a bit short, but this is just to start off with, more fun with the Marauders, Lily Severus, and Maia to come. Please respond if you are so inclined.


	2. Chapter 2

After changing into our school robes(and I pinned my head girl badge close to the Gryffindor patch) Maia and me got off the train and went to find a carriage with Sev. We were on the last carriage, just the three of us.

"Sorry I left," Severus said, "but I was causing the problem. They didn't bother you too much, did they Lily?"

Before I could answer Maia did, "She made James leave."

"How?"

"She just told him to, and he got his friends to leave with him."

Looking downcast Severus said, "I told you he fancied you."

I rolled my eyes, "He doesn't fancy my, he's just an annoying prat who enjoys pestering me."

Maia and Sev shared one of their knowledgeable looks with each other, being the only ones we've ever trusted, and said in unison with grim tones, "He fancies you."

"Well, even if he does, which he doesn't, I don't, and never will fancy him." I told them stubbornly

At the feast Maia sat next to me at the Gryffindor table (Severus was at the Slytherin table) just a few seats away from Potter and his friends. I wasn't even paying attention when the sorting hat was singing it's song or when the new students were sorted, and Maia had to tell me when the feast had started because I didn't even notice the food appear on the enchanted table. I was still trying to convince myself that James didn't like me when I overheard him just three seats away talking with his friends.

"What's with what happened on the train Prongs?" Sirius asked calling him his nickname they had created that made no sense, Sirius was Padfoot, Remus was Moony and Peter was Wormtail.

"It doesn't matter." James said coolly.

"Yes it is," Remus argued, "You never do what anyone says, even Sirius."

"Well…you know…" James said so quietly I could barely hear him.

"Is this about you fancying Lily?" Sirius asked loudly.

"Not so loud Padfoot, but yes," He sighed.

"But she said she'd never take you." Remus reminded him.

"I know Moony.."

"Move on, there are plenty of other girls." Sirius said._ He'd know, he's gone out with like fifty of them._

"But none like Evans, she's different."

Sirius and Remus moaned, and Serius said, "Please, just don't tell me this whole 'head boy' thing is going to make you go all goody-two-shoes on us, bad enough you're going soft."

"Don't worry, I may have to be a bit more discreet about causing trouble, but I won't stop."

"Oh, by the way do you know who's captain of the quidditch team this year?"

"Oh, almost forgot, it's me." James answered.

"What? You're quidditch captain and you don't even tell your best mate!" Sirius cried bothering quite a few people around him.

I was shocked, he hadn't told anyone he was quidditch captain when he parading about the fact he had become head boy. It was confusing how he could do that seeing as he was the "Quidditch King" according to half the school, surely he didn't have the self-control to keep it to himself. During this thought process I must have looked shocked because Maia nudged me in the side and said, "What's wrong Lily?"

"Potter's quidditch captain." I answered.

"So?"

"He hadn't even told Black."

She leaned forward to see the three boys asking why James hadn't told them, "Something weird must have happened to James over the Summer, there's no way he wouldn't have told even Serius. It may be a sign of the apocolypse, or you know how they're saying wizards everywhere are being put under the imperious curse by you-know-who."

I gave Maia an exasperated look, "This Lord Voldy guy is never going to be a huge threat. He was in Albania for ten and some odd years and came back to teach at Hogwarts, sure he's killed a few people, but would anyone truly evil want to become a teacher. Besides, why would he want to have control over Potter?"

"Who knows what he'd want with Potter, but I seriously think some teachers are evil, remember Professor Rinous?"

My eyes widened upon hearing the name of our previous Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, "Oh Merlin, he was horrible."

"As bad as being around Potter?" She joked.

"I'd rather hug Rinous than Potter any day."

"Who's professor Rinous?" A first year next to Maia asked.

"He was an evil teacher we had last year who is now in the insanity ward at Mungo's, hopefully we have a better teacher this year." Maia answered.

After the feast everyone went up to the common room where most of the younger students went straight to bed, but Potter and his friends(who call themselves the Marauders), Frank Longbottom and his girlfriend Alice, Maia and me all stayed. Me and Maia were playing a quiet game of Wizard's chess, I was winning. The Marauders, however, were loudly sharing about each other's Summers, Sirius was usually the one talking about how annoying his younger pureblood obsessed brother had been for the short amount of time they had met at the train station because he had run away.

"Just as I was about to beat Maia so we could go to bed I heard James loud voice say, "So when's your next furry little problem, Moony?"

"Shut it James, you want the whole castle to know?" Remus hissed, "And it's next Thursday if you really must know."

Me and the other three Gryffindors who obviously didn't know what they were talking about were a bit perturbed, enough so that even though Maia was extremely competitive she suggested we end the game early. As we walked up the stairs to our dormitory we were joined by Alice who said, "I feel so sorry for Frankie." We had to stifle our laughter at her nickname for him.

"Why?" I asked.

"He has to share a dorm with those four." She said in a whisper.

"Oh," Maia and me chimed in unison.

"At least me and Frank have something to look forward to." Alice continued.

Maia rolled her eyes, Alice was a fifth year who wore on Maia's nerves easily, "What?"

"The Halloween Ball, for fourth-year-and-olders." She said excitedly, "And I heard you can only go if you have a date, exception for prefects, head boy and girl, and quidditch players."

Maia smiled a devilish grin, "Sounds like a nice first date for you and Potter."

"Shut it Maia, before I decide to hex that mouth of yours shut for good," I spat, "I'll never date Potter."

At breakfast the next morning Potter tried to get me to sit next to him, but after six years I'd learned to just ignore his antics in hope he would grow bored. I sat next to Maia grabbing a piece of toast as I did so, and I saw Maia had our identical schedules, Potions, Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms and Herbology. The classes that would help me get a job in the Magical Law Enforcement department of the Ministry of Magic.

"You aren't going to like this," Maia said with a look of distaste as she grimly handed me my schedule.

"What am I not going to like?" I said a bit alarmed, this was not a good start to a morning.

"Before you got here Potter…Well, he was handing out the schedules… He has all the same classes as us, Sirius, Lupin and Peter as well," She hated giving me bad news.

"Now he's just trying to ruin my last year here, isn't he?" I muttered.

"Aren't you worried about him ruining your career, he must be trying to get the same job we are." Maia said afraid of my rising anger.

"No they aren't," She looked confused, "I heard Potter and his little friends bragging about becoming aurors, same classes, very different jobs."

"Quiet, quiet everyone," A soft but stern old voice rang through the Great Hall, Headmaster Dumbledore, "It has come to my attention that the news about the Halloween Ball has leaked out, so I thought I should at least clear up some miscommunications. Yes, this is first and foremost a couple's dance, meaning you must have a date in order to attend. There are a few exceptions to this rule, Prefects, head boy and girl, and all four quidditch captains. This dance is only open for those in their fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh years at Hogwarts only."

"For this event we need a lot of notice before hand as to how many will be attending, so there is a signup sheet. Every couple must be signed up no later than October first, so I would suggest that hose eligible to attend find someone to go with as soon as possible. The signup sheet is being monitored by Professor McGonnagal, so you will need to see her in order to signup. Sorry for interrupting your morning," And Dumbledore sank back into his chair.

Classes were about to start, so students were swarming out of the Great Hall talking excitedly about the Ball. Some were talking to their significant other wondering when their first chance to get signed up for the Ball would be. Those girls who were single wondered how long it would be before they would be asked. The single boys were trying to figure out how to ask the girl they'd been staring at during class the last couple of years to go out with them. So many students were worrying that they only had a month to find someone to go with.


	3. Chapter 3

Oops! I forgot the disclaimer on the last one! Anyway, in the last Chapter we had just heard about the Halloween Ball, who will go with who, who will ask who, and what does a decapitated troll have to do with anything?

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Harry Potter in Chapter 2 or 3. In fact the only thing Harry Potter I do own are the books.

It was nearly the twentieth of September, and no one had asked me to the ball, but Maia hadn't either. She was worried that if she didn't get a date I would go without her because I was head girl and could go on my own. I had reassured her about five hundred times that I would stay with her during the Ball and play chess, quidditch(she was keeper so was forced to be with Potter and Black), gobbstones or any other game to get her mind off of the Ball. It was our free period and we were caught up on homework, for once, so we were basking in the sun by the lake, to be specific, the opposite side of the lake that the Marauders were on.

"Hey, Lily?" I heard a familiar voice behind me say.

"Hi Severus," I greeted him, we hadn't had much of a chance to talk this year because of Potter, homework, Potter, Head girl duty, Potter, constant classes, did I mention Potter driving me insane?

"So," He asked nervously, "Are you going to the Ball with anyone?"

"No, you?" I answered, why was he so nervous?

"Well, I was hoping since we've known each other so long…" He stopped inexplicably, then looked straight into my eyes, "perhaps you would go with me?"

I looked to Maia, who nodded her approvement, "Of coarse I will."

His appearance changed very suddenly, from nervous to happy, "Thank you Lily, oh, and if you sign this I can sign up with McGonnagal for us."

I signed the paper saying that I had agreed to go with Severus, I shared a quick friendly embrace with him, and then he swept away to signup for the Ball with the closest I had ever seen him to running.

"He still loves you Lily." Maia reminded me.

"I know, but after fifth year we've both known we were never made to love one another and Sev has accepted we shall never be more than friends, close friends, but friends all the same." I told her. Calling me a mudblood like all his death eater friends was when I knew I could never love my childhood friend Severus Snape. I knew he was planning on becoming a death eater, but I was still convinced he had good in him. So, until he became a death eater with the dark mark to prove it, I would be his friend.

"Now I have to find a date, although I don't think it's fair that only quidditch captains can go to the Ball dateless. Like James would go alone." Maia said exasperated.

I laughed, "Like anyone could resist the only female Keeper in twenty years."

"Twenty-three," She said proudly with her chin held high. If anyone could handle being around six rude boys, it would be Maia. She was truly a vision of strength, and at times stupidity.

As the days until the deadline for signing-up for the Ball drew to a close boys became suddenly desperate for a date. And two of those boys were James Potter and Serius Black. Apparently Potter had been dared to find a date with less than a day until the deadline, and Serius hadn't wanted him to be alone in 'the hunt', as they called it.

On Friday the thirtieth of September practically the whole of the Gryffindor house was in the common room, some doing their homework, others just lazing around. As for Maia and me, we were writing a particularly long Defense Against the Dark Arts Essay that was due Monday. We were only a few inches from being done with all of our homework for the weekend and were happy as could be until they came. And by they I mean James Potter and Serius Black.

"Maia," Serius said looking at my friend who nearly had a heart attack hearing him say her name.

"Y-yes, Serius?" She replied timidly.

"I'm sure you've heard of the Halloween Ball," He said in his charming voice with a sincere smile that just seemed out of place on his reckless, taunting face, "I was wondering if I could get you to join me?"

"As a date?" She asked, beaming.

"Of coarse," By now he had resorted back to his reckless grin that made you wonder what stupid prank he was thinking about.

"I'd love to Mr. Black," Maia answered and 'Mr. Black' flinched.

"Please, call me Sirius." He said, obviously straining to keep composure, though I have no idea why, "I'll sign us up tomorrow at free period."

"See ya then Serius," She called as he walked away, but Potter had remained.

Maia and me went back to our work, trying to ignore Potter hoping he would just go away. As I wrote the last sentence I found myself overly aware that Potter was staring at me. I quickly wrote the period and looked up at him, frowning.

"Can I help you Potter?" Making my voice sound indifferent.

"I was wondering if you'd go to the ball with me." He said with a slight tremble in his voice. I had been expecting this from him.

"No," I said putting the lid back on my jar of ink.

My answer seemed to wake him up from his anxious trance and he seemed a bit insulted, "Why not? Lily, surely you would rather go to the Ball with me than all alone? I'm quidditch captain, I've been nice to Snivellous all year, I'm even Head Boy, What more do I need to do to impress you?"

I felt the whole of Gryffindor staring at us, but I didn't care, "Two things Potter. First of all, you are a conceited prat with an ego bigger than Hogwarts Castle itself. The way you act I'm surprised you can survive without a bloody spotlight on you all the time. And I frankly don't care if you're Head Boy, Quiddtch Captain or any else. I still wouldn't love you even if you more powerful and important than the bloody Minister of Magic himself. I'd rather go to the Halloween Ball with a one-legged decapitated troll than go anywhere with you!"

Everyone was shocked to see me insult their quidditch king, his hazel eyes were wide with fright through his glass as he stared at me with his mouth open, "Besides," I continued a bit calmer, "I already have a date to the Ball."

I picked up my Parchment, ink, quill and books and went up to my dormitory, Maia silently following in my wake. We got up to our room and I poured the stuff in my arms into the bag on my bed. I noticed Maia was just standing behind me holding her stuff haphazardly, "You just told off Potter." She said in disbelief.

I gave her a wry smile, "Your point?"

"You insulted him in front of the entire Gryffindor house. The few who are willing to insult him to his face end up dealing with his friends."

"Black, Pettigrew and Lupin? I'm not afraid of them."

"You're forgetting that with James they're the Marauders, the biggest pranksters the school has seen in over a century. And don't you pretend you didn't overhear Dumbledore say so. Aren't you at least somewhat afraid of what they'll do to you?" She was getting desperate.

"No, I'm not. Potter asked me why I wouldn't go to the ball with him, so I told him why. If he doesn't like my reply that's his own fault."

"You didn't see the look on his face, did you?" I curiously raised an eye brow, "He looked as if he was on the verge of tears."

I shrugged, like I really cared if that jerk Potter was upset, after what he had done in the last six years he deserved it. Making fun of me and my friends(mainly Sev) and bragging constantly was annoying. He deserved me to tell him off, I decided in my head. We didn't talk to each other as we got into our pajamas. But after getting into bed I smiled, "Guess we're both going to be going to the ball."

She did her wide ear to ear grin that eerily reminded me of Molly Prewett's, Molly had been a seventh year when we were in our first and was always more than willing to help anyone and cheer people up, "I know, and I'm going with Sirius!" She hugged herself tightly before falling asleep.

For the next month until the ball Potter had tried not to look anywhere near me, and Maia kept saying he looked almost depressed, I never did see his face. Contrary to Maia's beliefs, the Marauder's never pranked me, Sev or Maia after I yelled at James. Perhaps I scared them, or maybe they had just lost interest. I couldn't stop grinning at the thought that both might be true.

There, another chapter posted! Please respond if you feel like it.


	4. Chapter 4

It's chapter 4! And we aren't even close to finished. This chapter is all about one thing…The Mysterious Halloween Ball! Mainly fluff, and a bit slow, but it's necessary for what's coming later. There's also a hint of a short humor fic I'm planning on writing later.

Disclaimer: I own as much of the rights to Harry Potter as I do Saturn, none. So I don't own any Harry Potter (Lemonbomber sulks).

"Why does no color ever go well with a girl's red hair?" I asked Maia, whose light blue dress went perfectly with her bright blue eyes and black hair. I had been charming my dress different colors for the last half hour, red looked bad with my hair, I didn't like how the dress looked in blue, I hate wearing white, Maia had told me off for attempting black(which so far was my favorite), we had agreed that green made me look christmasy, eventually I gave into a very dark blue.

As I was putting my hair up Maia asked me how she looked for the hundreth time, "You look great Maia, ho about me?"

She looked at me, "Something's missing… I got it!" She ran over to her trunk and searched furiously for a minute and pulled out a small necklace, a silver chain with a blue oval on it.

She began putting it over my head and clasping it in the back, "I was going to wait until Christmas, but I wanted to see the look on your face and I'm going home for the holidays, plus it goes so well with your dress. It's a sapphire."

Maia was right, the necklace looked good on me. We walked down to the first floor where we met Serius, alone. Maia walked up to him excitedly and let him put his arm around him. Then she asked, "So where's Potter?"

Serius answered immediately, "He's already in the great Hall, he's volunteered to help run the ball." He looked at me, perhaps hoping I cared, but I really didn't.

"So we'll see ya later Lily?" Maia said breaking the silence.

"Yeah," I agreed, "I need to find my date."

"And who might that be?" Sirius asked, obviously because Potter asked him to.

I smirked, "You'll see." Maia led a reluctant Serius off and into the Great Hall as I waited for Severus. However, there were a lot of people waiting for their dates in the entry hall, but I still noticed when Sev walked in from the door to the dungeons. His hair was just as greasy as usual, but it was combed straight and looked nicer than usual. He also had on slightly tattered dress robes, but I didn't mind.

He walked up to me hurridly, "Hi Lily," He said nervously.

"Hi Severus." I said grinning, this was followed by an awkward pause.

Sev broke it timidly, "You look… err… beautiful tonight, not that you usually don't."

I blushed, no one has ever really complimented my appearance, "Thanks Sev, you look nice too,"

"Well, shall we?" He asked motioning towards the Great Hall and he held his hand out apprehensively.

I smiled and took his hand and we walked hand in hand into the Great Hall. As we walked through the Great Hall everyone was staring at us, whether it was because we were a Gryffindor and a Slytherin, or he was a Slytherin with a muggle born is a mystery. I only really cared about two faces in the crowd though, Sev's, that was grinning broadly happy that he was here with me. Then there was Potter's, that I briefly saw and turned away quickly. He was standing near the head of the hall, alone and looked devastated. Potter was probably hoping I had been kidding about having a date.

We found Maia and Sirius who were standing where the Gryffindor table usually was, Maia smiled and said hi to both of us. Her date on the other hand was looking away in order to restrain himself from hexing Severus, as the Marauder's had done at every chance they got the last six years. We all started talking, except for Sirius, but I was still curious why I hadn't had anything done to me for my outburst at Potter, so I asked him.

He blinked in surprise, "James said not to, he told us that night that everything you said was true. Really rattled him though. Remus and me wanted to prank you anyway, but crossing the top witch and wizard in the school didn't seem like a good idea."

I laughed quietly thinking of him going against the wishes of his best friend, "You know what Black, I think that's the smartest plan you've ever had."

"I've had plenty of great plans!" He said in his defense.

Maia, Sev and I all began laughing, Maia said, "Which of your 'plans' would you call great?"

"A lot of them, and I bet you can't name one of my plans that went wrong."

"Charming McGonagall's blackboard to scream every time she said homework or essay." I said.

"Come on! That was third year, and you were laughing too!"

"Bribing Peeves to ruin the game against Slytherin fifth year that resulted in you and James having to sit out the next game." Maia added.

"That was James' idea, I just helped,"

"Transfiguring the Defense Against Dark Arts teacher into a tiger." Sev growled.

"I'll take credit for that, but it was an improvement to professor Repetila wasn't it?"

"How about The Great Hogwarts Food Fight last year?"

"Okay, okay, I get it, my plans aren't good." He said pouting, Maia put her arm around him and told him it was okay to have all your plans end badly.

Attention was being called to the front, where Dumbledore was standing with Professor McGonagall who had her hair down, which looked a little creepy to tell the truth. When he got everyone's attention he spoke, "Now that everyone is here, we will start with only couples that have one of the following in their group dancing; Prefects, Head boy and girl and Quidditch captains."

Me and Severus briskly made our way to the dance floor at the head of the hall, along with Avery (Quidditch Captain), Macnair (prefect, somehow), Dorcas Meadowes (a Ravenclaw Prefect) was with Benjy Fenwick, and the two Hufflepuff prefects together, I could never remember their names. Us and the four other couples got ready to dance, but Severus looked uncomfortable. I remembered he had never been a that good of a dancer, I distinctly remember when we were being taught to dance he was yelled at for being a clumsy-foot. Clumsy-foot was a stupid way for Slughorn to tell us we had to left feet, we all found it annoying.

When the music began I found that Sev had gotten a lot better at dancing, but neither of us really liked dancing anyway. So after the first dance we just sat in the back talking about how we both preferred muggle music to wizard music. People continued to look at us every once in a while, especially Severus' friends, "Why do they keep glaring at us?" I asked.

He grimaced, "They aren't exactly fond of me going with you because you're a Gryffindor and a…" He paused, but I knew the end of his sentence.

"Mudblood?" I finished.

He flinched, he hated the word after I had yelled at him for calling me a mudblood two years before, "Yeah, the other Slytherins are a bit stuck on the whole pureblood thing."

"Do they know you're a half blood?"

"No." He said. His friends weren't exactly accepting, then again, they were planning to be death eaters. Sev was likely to follow them, eventually.

After a long silence I grabbed his left forearm and said, "Come on, let's go dance again."

He pulled his arm from me like it hurt and held it while he winced. I was afraid I had hurt him, "Severus, are you okay?"

He attempted to quickly regain composure, "I'm fine, you're right, we should go dance." Sev stood, but I wanted to know why he was acting so strange, so I pushed him back into his seat. Realizing how determined I was to see what was wrong with his arm, he didn't protest when I grabbed his left arm. He just looked away.

I pulled his sleeve up to his elbow, and I was hoping to see a scar, a bruise, a scab, anything but what was there. It was a ghastly looking skull with a serpent winding out the jaws, it was the dark mark that had been all over the daily prophet in, Voldemort's mark. I wasn't afraid of him now he was the Dark Lord's, I wasn't angry, I was sad. I let his arm free and the sleeve covered up his tattooed arm.

Severus looked up at me, "Lily, I'm…"

"We made a deal Snape." I cut in, I'd never called him Snape before, we'd been to close of friends."

"Lily, I never meant to get this far in."

"How long?"

"How long what?"

"How long have you had _that_ on your arm?" I demanded.

"Since the fourteenth of July." He replied quietly staring at the floor.

"Three and a half months, and you didn't even have the decency to tell me?"

"I didn't want to make you mad, I want to be your friend still."

"It's too late for that," I said sternly, but keeping my voice down, "We made a deal that I would be your friend until you became a death eater like all of your friends are. Not only are you a death eater now, but you didn't tell me. I can't forgive you for this Sev." I was now fighting to hold back tears, my best friend had betrayed me.

"Is there anything I can do?" He asked, his voice was dry.

I shook my head, "Just leave."

He looked insulted, but he got up and left the Great Hall anyway. When he was out of sight I took his seat and sat thinking with my head in my hands. I eventually realized I just wanted to talk to Maia, unfortunately they were both dancing and having fun. I thought about going up the common room, but there was nothing for me to do there, so I finally just decided to watch them.

After half an hour of this, Potter walked up and sat next to me, and stared blankly at me. It was really annoying. Finally I just looked away and said, "What do you want Potter?"

"I'd like to know why your sitting here alone instead of dancing with your boyfriend." His voice was softer than I had ever heard it before. I quickly decided it was only because I was still upset at Sev that Potter seemed nice.

"He decided to go to bed early." I snapped.

He said nothing for a minute, "I'm sorry that I have been an egotistical jerk, I apologize for thinking that just because I'm Head boy you'd like me, and I congratulate you on finding someone other than a one-legged decapitated troll to go to the ball with."

He silently stood up and walked away leaving me shocked that he, the Quidditch King, would apologize to me, who had done nothing but insult him for years. I finally allowed myself to realize he did fancy me, even if the feeling wasn't mutual.

"So how was your time at the ball?" Maia asked me at two in the morning after telling me all about her time with Sirius, she said he was funny and actually pretty smart, his only real flaws being his recklessness and 'family issues.' We had been using the _muffliato_ spell so we wouldn't wake our entire dorm.

I instantly became hesitant, "It was interesting.."

"How so?" She said cocking her head to the left.

"I found out that Snape has the dark mark and Potter…" I paused for a moment, "Isn't half the jerk he leads us all to believe."

Just so you know, there is at least three more chapters in this story, a.k.a. LILY DOES NOT LOVE JAMES YET! She just doesn't think he is as much of a jerk anymore. Please respond, as long as you're nice. I don't appreciate hate mail.


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry this took so long, but when I was almost finished 'Microsoft Word unexpectedly quit' and I lost the entire chapter. So here I go re-writing it. This is a short transition chapter, enjoy, yada, yada, yada.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or Microsoft Word, because if I did there would be no 'unexpected quitting.' My computer hates me!

It was mid-November, usually a cheerful time of year because Holiday break is a mere two and a half weeks away. However, I can't say I'm too excited for three reasons. First of all, my best (and only friend because Sev is a death eater) Maia is going home for the holiday. Almost everyone is because they know the Dark Lord is gaining power and going on killing sprees, and they want spend what may be their last Christmas with their family. Others believe Hogwarts is the safest place on earth right now because the Dark Lord supposedly fears Dumbledore, which leads us to reason two. The Marauders are the only Gryffindors remaining at Hogwarts.

Reason three, I'm a muggle-born, meaning my parents don't believe this 'you-know-who' Dark homicidal wizard exists. Meaning that I have to spend the Holiday at Hogwarts, with just the Marauders. Oh, joy.

Severus is going home too, probably to serve his Excellency, the Dark Lord Voldemort. Thinking about Snape right now still makes me sick to the stomach. Me and Maia have gotten into the habit of spending our free period in the Gryffindor Common room just to avoid him, and usually we aren't bothered, except today.

"Cronus," Potter says as he walks up to us playing chess, referring to Maia by last name, "The only time we could get for practice was free period tomorrow."

It was Thursday and there was a Quidditch game Saturday, and they wanted to have a practice the night before the match. Maia furrowed her brow, "They gave Ravenclaw the spot?"

"Yeah, so we'll have to deal with this spot instead, minus Crius, he has detention with Sprout." Potter answered.

"I'll be there- wait, how did Crius get detention from Sprout? She'll let you do anything short of burning down the greenhouse without any more than telling you to be more careful." Maia said confused.

"Actually, Crius burned half the plants in one of the green house. He's a great beater, but he has a bit of a temper, anyway, see ya tomorrow."

I looked at Maia who was still contemplating her next move, "With you having Quidditch practice, what am I supposed to do during free period?"

She said her move, thought a minute, shrugged and said, "Come and do homework in the stands."

I glared at her over the chess board and made my move, "Check mate. And there's no way in hell I'm going to do homework in the stands."

So here I am with a quill and piece of parchment, doing my homework in the stands surrounding the Quidditch pitch. Potter and Black laughed when they realized what I was doing, Maia in return hit them in the back of their heads with the quaffle, a.k.a. my turn to laugh. I did watch their practice a bit, but it wasn't nearly as interesting as when they were in a match, so I quickly got involved with my homework, until…

"Evans! Heads up!" I instinctively ducked under the seats in front of me. How come when someone says heads up, they want you to put your head down? I felt air rush over my head, rustling through my hair, then a loud thump behind me followed by what sounded like cracking marble.

I cautiously looked up and behind me. I gasped when I saw I bludger buried halfway into the cement wall where my head had been seconds before impact. I ran my hand through my hair and picked up my stuff avoiding the path of the bludger in case it pulled itself free.

"Sorry Evans, I didn't mean to let that one get away from me." He was hovering about thirty feet away.

"Do bludgers usually attempt to kill spectators?" I asked, half afraid the answer was yes.

"Well…no, not usually. It's just a rogue bludger, Madam Hooch will take care of it."

I looked nervously at it, "How are you planning on getting it out?"

"_Accio_ and a beater bat." He replied.

I thought of all the possibilities of how that plan could go wrong, but I decided it was better not to question the guy who thought he was the best beater in the world, "Right, you have fun with that."

_Quidditch players are not the most sane people _I thought realizing you could easily get killed playing the sport. I was almost out of the stadium when I heard a scream, and at the thought of what it might be I turned. Sirius Black, beater extraordinaire was dangling off the rogue as his broom lay useless on the ground. Maia was laughing hysterically, barely holding onto her broom, Potter and two others circled below the bludger in hope of catching Sirius when he fell, the other had gotten Black's Beater bat and was fending off the other bludger. This would live to be my favorite memory of Quidditch for a while. Especially when Black, Potter and Maia had to explain why they were late for Transfiguration, in a class with Ravenclaws.

We beat them the next day though, Gryffindor team driven by Ravenclaw's taunts. Sirius actually hit their chaser off their broom because he asked if he would rather ride a bludger than a broom. We won three-hundred-seventy to forty.

Told you it was short. This was written as a transition and to add some humor. Other things that Sirius hit with a bludger during that game: The other team's keeper, all three chasers, a beater, the seeker's left shoe, Madam Hooch (awarding the other team ten points), the other bludger, all six hoops, one of the flags on top of the teacher's seats, and Elvis Presley in his animagus form, a fly. We miss you Elvis!

Next time we will see what happens when we trap Lily, a wand and four teenage boys that annoy her in a common room!


	6. Chapter 6

Installment six, and I still don't know how long this madness is going to go on. In this chapter you will see what happens when Lily Evans is trapped with the Marauders. I'd also like to thank those who have read this much, thank you! Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, because if I did I wouldn't be wasting time writing a fanfiction this long. I also do not own any Christmas songs, or Frosty the Snowman.

It was our Christmas Holiday, and things had not been going well. The Marauders had already annoyed me to the point of threatening three of them (not Peter), throwing a book at Sirius, and hexing Potter with the bat bogey hex. I should probably mention that it was only the first evening of our break. I had now locked myself in my dorm and was trying to read, but I often found myself distracted by the snow outside.

I heard a distant cheer from the dorm room, apparently Potter had returned from the hospital wing to get the bat bogeys hex off. It had only given me a half hour of peace, but it was worth it. When the Gryffindor house was this empty sound carried really well and I could usually hear what they were talking about. It wasn't until after midnight they had gone to bed after a couple hours of Christmas caroling, and it was only December fourteenth.

In the morning I got up early and went to send a letter to Petunia, who shared my dislike for Potter. At the same time I sent a letter to Maia asking to write often because if I was trapped with them I'd go insane. The only owl I could get to deliver the two letters was a small brown barn owl. I walked slowly down to the Great Hall, never knowing how Dumbledore was going to arrange it for the holidays. A few times he had just kept it the same, and others he dramatically changed the amount of seating, and this was one of those times.

The Great Hall usually looked huge, but with the change to the seating arrangement it looked cavernous. There were five table like usual, but the staff table was in a half circle in the center of the hall. The other four tables were small, round, and seated six people. That meant I would have to sit next to one of the Marauders, I chose the seat closest to the staff table hoping that if they tried to pull anything they would get caught.

Remus and Peter were the first of the Gryffindors to arrive, Remus sat on my left and Peter on the other side of him. Peter was frantically trying to explain to Remus that an inferi was going to sneak up behind him like Peeves did all the time and kill him. Obviously Remus had been trying to get Peter to think differently for a while now.

"Inferi aren't ghosts Peter, they can't go through walls, and they aren't see through. Besides, you know how safe Hogwarts is, inferi could never get in here." Remus said rubbing his eyes.

Peter wasn't convinced, "But they could-"

"Are you still on that whole inferi invading the castle thing?" Potter interrupted sitting next to Peter, Sirius sat next to him.

"Yes," Peter and Remus said simultaneously.

"For Christ's sake," Sirius groaned, "There is absolutely no way inferi would get into Hogwarts, and no they aren't invisible, impenetrable, or inbreeds."

I had to ask, "_Inbreeds_?"

"Peter just found out what inferi are," Potter replied, "sort of. We don't even want to know where inbreeds came from."

"Right…." I instantly regretted talking, _did I just talk to Ja-, I mean Potter._

I ignored the rest of the conversation as I quickly finished eating. When I left Remus and Peter were arguing about asking Dumbledore if inferi could get into Hogwarts. I went directly up to my dorm, and collapsed on my bed looking at the ceiling. Why had I responded to Ja-, Potter, I hated him. Was I growing fond of him, or was being trapped with the Marauders making me go insane faster than I expected? Perhaps lack of sleep had made me slip.

Why again did I hate him? Let's see, he's a pompous jerk, he enjoys playing pranks. He doesn't deserve half the fame he gets, like head boy for example. He makes fun of me, he makes fun of Maia, he makes fun of Sever-, I mean Slytherins. I believe I also remember a statement I said not to long ago about him being a conceited brat and that I'd rather be with a one-legged decapitated troll. And his sneaking out with his friends every month, not really a reason to hate him, I just find it annoying.

In the end I decided to ignore him, which became difficult when the twenty or so students at the school got bored. And being as creative as we are we found something (usually stupid) to do to waste time.

On the fifteenth we had a snowball war, it was way beyond a snowball fight. The teams were Gryffindor and Hufflepuff against Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Our side had only nine people, the other side had twelve, but we won. Mainly because we had two chasers and a beater on our side who could throw really hard, and the other side had no quidditch players.

The sixteenth was one of my favorite days, we had a girls vs. boys competition on who could make the best snow-wizard. We even got teachers to judge, Sprout, Slughorn and Dumbledore. The girls won for most human like snowman, but the boys won overall because they enchanted theirs to sing 'Frosty the Snowman' while tapdancing. That was before it began attacking students, needless to say, it was Sirius' and James' idea.

On the seventeenth there was a blizzard outside, so we had a chess tournament (which I won), a gobbstones tournament (I came in third) and had the muggle studies teacher teach us to play the best muggle sport ever, ping pong. Then we had a ping pong tournament, I won every game, it was awesome.

The eighteenth was Hogsmeade day, the last chance to go before Christmas, and I've never seen it so empty in Hogsmeade. We shopped in the morning and just hung out with our peers for the rest of the day. The famous Marauders attempted to restart the snowball wars. It didn't go to well, one person said that it was 'so three days ago,' then they attempted to get me to help them restart it, I refused then went to The Three Broomsticks to have a butterbeer. It was the fourth perfect day in a row.

The night of the eighteenth was the fourth night I was invited to sing muggle carols with the Marauders. The previous three nights I had blatantly refused and gone to lock myself in my dorm with a good book. But with the four of them asking me (the most persistant of which was strangely Peter), and my strangely euphoric mood, I agreed. We sang classics, Rudolph the red nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Let it Snow, and Jingle Bells. Then we decided to write our own Twelve days of Christmas, this is the disaster it ended in:

_On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me:_

_Twelve singing Snowmen, (Sirius)_

_Eleven mandrakes screaming, (Peter)_

_Ten stupid pranks, (Remus)_

_Nine butterbeers, (Potter)_

_Eight textbooks, (Me, I couldn't think of anything)_

_Seven more detentions, (Sirius)_

_Six yelling howlers, (Peter)_

_Five Quidditch Balls, (Potter)_

_Four annoying Marauders, (Me)_

_Three dumb carols, (Remus)_

_Two broomsticks, (Potter)_

_And one Hogwarts snowball war! (Consensus)_

It was late at night, I was tired, and they tricked me into helping. And it's obvious what Potter's fond of from his contributions, Quidditch and butterbeer. I'm a bit bothered by the fact that both of Peter's have to do with screaming, Remus' were both sarcastic, big surprise there, and Sirius' had to do with getting detention. Okay, perhaps this wasn't the best thing to do at midnight, but life anywhere near the Marauders is… interesting to say the least.

The next morning I was having trouble sleeping, I was wide awake by six. I began thinking of the letter I sent to Maia, she had always been good about responding quickly and had promised to be so since I was stuck the Marauders, which wasn't as bad now that Potter was being… more subdued, and perhaps not quite as boastful. Three days was the longest it had ever taken Maia to respond, this was the fifth day, and even if her father was keeping her busy she would find time to write even a short letter to me. I was beginning to worry that something might be wrong.

At seven I finally got up and dressed for what I was sure would be another good day, but something was amiss. I got one of those feelings that you get deep in your gut telling you something bad is about to happen, and there's nothing you can do about it. I just brushed it off and went to the Great Hall, about half way down I met up with Remus and we talked the whole way down about our upcoming lesson in Defense Against the Dark Arts where we would learn the Patronus charm.

A couple of Ravenclaws were the only other students in the Great Hall, so me and Remus joked around with them while we waited for the other Marauders to arrive, and when they did we began eating breakfast. Potter and Sirius were discussing what everyone should do today, while Remus poured over a book and Peter watched the kings of mischief in one of their inspirational discussions that something brilliant, and usually somewhat stupid, came from. But for some reason I felt far away from them, their voices muffled, my dread seemed mysterious until the post came.

The small owl who had carried off my letters two days ago was soaring in the Great Hall with a small, plain letter in its beak. It landed on my plate and dropped the letter, it looked almost sad, if an owl can really look all that sad. I opened the letter cautiously and quickly skimmed over the lines, and what I saw was more than enough. As I hurriedly shoved the letter back in the envelope I felt a tear roll down my cheek that the sleeve of my robe swiped away.

The reason for my odd feeling of sadness had been shown to me, and I couldn't help but wish that I was back in the common room singing Christmas carols, ignorant of what my letter entailed.

And just like daytime drama, this is a commercial break to build suspense before you find out what the mysterious letter said, perhaps you even know. I apologize for any events happening on a special day for anyone, I know Snape became a death eater on someone's birthday.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7! Sorry if I angered you with a cliffhanger, but I've planning to do that for a while. Anyway, we're (technically just you) going to find out what the letter says and why it upsets Lily so much. Once again I hope you enjoy, and I'd like to thank the five people who have responded.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, and I probably never will. I admit I don't own the rights to any Stevie Nicks/Don Henly songs, or a ping pong table.

In the girls dorm we never opened the large windows, but I now had one of the large windows open and was sitting on the ledge staring at the snow covered Forbidden Forest. I was freezing, but that was the last thing on my mind at the moment. The only thing I could think of was the letter lying across the dorm on my bed, I had read it fifteen times. At first the words had seemed unreal, but the Minister of Magic's signature in green ink at the bottom had proved otherwise.

I was finally beginning to stop crying, and every time I ran the contents of the letter through my head it was easier to deal with:

_Ms. Evans;_

_I am sorry to inform you that You-Know-Who's Dark Mark was raised last night over the Cronus household. The entire household was found dead including a Ms. Maia Louise Cronus, seeing that to anyone's knowledge you are her only friend and she has no next of kin, the Ministry thought it right to alert you she will not be returning after break. This was a random attack to our knowledge, and we have evidence that it was wizards your age who murdered the family._

_The Ministry gives it's condolences._

Maia was dead, it was an unforgettable fact. Ever since our first day of school we'd been as close as we could be, our other friends had changed daily, but we were always with each other. I knew she hadn't had any next of kin, she had told me third year. Her grandmother had been one of the prestigious Blacks who was disbanded for marrying a muggle. Her grandparents had died of age some ten years ago, but their only child and son, Izar who married a muggle-born, Nashira. Nashira, Maia's Mother and an orphan, died when Maia was only three. So her father, Izar had taken care of her and her two brothers, five and seven years her senior.

Parts of the letter seemed stupid, and angered me more. "_the Ministry thought it right to alert you she will not be returning after break,"_ That would seem somehow obvious seeing as she is dead, and what do they mean they give their condolences. They didn't know her, how even though everything in this world is falling apart thanks to Lord Voldemort she was able to be happy, even last year when her brother was killed because he refused to become a death eater. No, she boasted his bravery and bragged that her brother dared defy the "so called Dark Lord."

One part of the letter that I doubted was the fact it was a random attack. The Cronuses had never been shy to speak their minds, and their point of view was far from supportive of Voldemort, and the death eaters in the school would be sure to know of her family's disapproval. It wouldn't be a stretch to say they were targeted. The letter also claimed that they were killed by people around seventh year, every time I read those words my mind jumped straight to Snape. As much as I didn't want to think of him as a killer, his frustration at being left friendless, the few snide remarks me and Maia had made towards him the past couple months, and acting otherwise like he didn't exist. Him killing her was not beyond the stretch of my imagination.

As I looked over the school grounds I saw nothing but memories of Maia. The tree by the lake we had done homework during free period for three years. Hagird's hut, where we often went when we needed advice from the friendly gamekeeper. The greenhouses that Maia had hated so much after getting bitten forty-seven times by mandrakes during one Herbology class second year. The quidditch pitch, where she had spent more time some years there than sleeping in the dorm. And the lake itself, where Maia had accidentally fell in fourth year and pulled me in too, where she played in the shallows near the end of the year, and where Maia had talked to the merpeople.

There was a yell from the bottom of the stairs, sounded like Sirius. So I quickly wiped one last tear from my eye and slowly walked down the stairs hoping I didn't look too much like I had been crying. All the Marauders were there, and noticed my bad job of covering up tears, "You okay Lily?" Remus asked.

I nodded quickly, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"We weren't sure, seeing as you practically sprinted out of the Great Hall." Potter said smirking.

"Don't worry, it was just something important for the time being, what did you call me for?" I asked, deciding that if Maia was dead the whole world had gone to the dogs anyway.

"We've decided to have an all school competition." Potter replied.

"You do know there is far less then all the school here, right?"

He covered his hand in fake horror, "Really, Lily?"

"Really, James."

It was quiet a moment, and then I realized why. That was the first time I had ever called Potter, by his first name. I decided to not notice that I had done something a bit out of character. James finally recovered, "Did you just call me by my first name?"

"Yeah, so, if we're trapped together for the rest of the break we might as well get along." I answered.

He rose one eyebrow into his messy hair, "I thought you said on the train that you would get along with me when hell freezes over."

I thought of Maia being dead, then said loudly, "As far as I'm concerned, Hell is inside a glacier."

He gave a wild smirk, "So, does that mean you'll go out with me?"

I smiled best I could with Maia on my mind and said, "Don't push it James."

In our Competition twenty people had agreed to participate, and five teachers had agreed to help judge competitions, Sprout, McGonagal, Slughorn, Flitwick and Dumbledore. We had to be in groups of five, and house didn't matter, but I teamed up with the Marauders anyway. The only reason I had agreed to this was to keep my mind off of that stupid letter. It was decided to have ten small competitions to decide which team was best, but first we had to pick a name. When I heard that I was instantly afraid of what they would come up with, we finally just called ourselves the Marauders to keep it simple. I told them it had always been my dream to be an honorary Marauder. Peter took it as a compliment.

The first event was the six-legged race, which is like a three-legged race, only with five people instead of two. Our order was Peter, Remus, Sirius, James, and me on the end, we put arms over everyone's shoulders. During the race all the other teams ended up falling flat on their faces, but we didn't because we were whispering to each other like military generals, "Left, left, left right left," We won the hundred meter length with ease, though I felt slightly uncomfortable with James' arm around my shoulder, but more importantly with Sirius' hand next to my ear.

Next we had a trivia contest where each person had to answer one question and the team who had the most questions right got a point. We were last and the Pufflehuffs (I don't even want to know why they chose that) had two points, the Baltimore Ravens (This was a muggle-born's idea, but I still don't get it) had three, and the Slytherin team, the DE's (could those stupid Death Eaters be any stupider) got four points. We had to get all of our questions right to win, Peter was first.

"Are inferi and ghosts the same?"

"No because inferi aren't invisible, impenetrable or-"

"Thank you Mr. Petigrew." Dumbledore interrupted, everyone here knew what he was going to say next.

Remus' question was how to identify werewolves, all four Marauders gave toothy smiles and Remus answered perfectly. I thought back to fifth year when Snape had tried fruitlessly to convince Maia and me that Remus was a werewolf, I now wondered if perhaps Snape had been right.

Sirius was asked about the reasons not to charm everything, which forced him to admit it was dangerous and potentially harmful (like a huge tap dancing snowman that attacks students) and he muttered to us that the snowman had gotten him detention the first day back. My question was about the History of Hogwarts, and I answered easily having read Hogwarts, A History twenty-three times (hey, I get bored!).

James I was a bit worried about, he rarely payed attention in class, thankfully his question was about who invented the first snitch, him having read Quidditch Through The Ages who knows how many times he got it easily, so we won.

Our next competition was a transfiguration contest, you had ten minutes and a pile of junk from random unused classrooms. Each person got to transfigure one object into the most random thing they could think of that was as strange next to other objects. We had a giant throw pillow, a manikin that looked strangely like one of the Beatles, a blast-ended skrewt, a large flaming rabbit, and a bucket of gillyweed. We won.

After Lunch we had karaoke, it was a bit scary. Two people from each team had to do a duet, most groups did a guy and a girl sing together, but Sirius and James really wanted to do a duet together. They didn't get to choose either and they ended up doing Stevie Nicks and Don Henley's Leather and lace. It was hilarious, stupid and embarrassing, but we won.

The next event was a relay race across the school. The order for our team was Peter, Remus, me, Sirius then Potter. Peter ran the stretch from Hagrid's hut to the Staircare to the Great Hall, I ran from there to the stairwell on the third floor. Remus ran up to the fifth floor, and Sirius to the Seventh and James ran up to the top of the Astronomy Tower, and strangely we lost to the Pufflehuffs.

I wasn't even thinking about Maia until the last event, the Chess/ Gobstones/ Quidditch/ Dueling and Ping Pong competition, each person played something different. Peter got Gobstones, Remus got dueling, Sirius got Ping Pong (he came in second after me), James had quidditch, and I got chess because I was the only one with any skill at it. But playing chess reminded me how Maia and I played chess almost constantly since second year. No one could tell why I was so sad even after winning all three of my games, and especially when I found out that the boys had won their events as well, so we automatically won the entire competition.

I wasn't really there at dinner or when we celebrated our victory. Perhaps my body was, and I was talking and pretending that everything was okay, but my mind was in some dark corner of the school crying. But James and Sirius decided that I should be happy and cheered me up by doing a repeat performance of leather and lace, and it's impossible not to laugh at their rendition of the song. And that, along with more Christmas carols made me once again forget Maia.

Not for long though, when I went to bed I found the letter. "_found dead including a Ms. Maia Louise Cronus,"_ I crumpled the paper up and hid it in my nightstand drawer. I had convinced myself that paper was evil, I'd probably burn it later. Any piece of paper that could hurt that bad deserved to die… err, burn.

Maia, I miss you.

Chapter 7 completed. I apologize for leaving a 'cliffhanger' as someone reviewed. But look at the bright side, it took me less than 24 hours to update. And yeah, there will only be a few more chapters. Hope you liked it!


	8. Chapter 8

Part eight. Lily is dealing with Maia's death in an interesting way, if she's always doing something she doesn't have time to think about it. Meanwhile, Lily has started hanging out with the Marauders and calling James James. Now what will happen during Christmas?

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or Poptarts, man I hate those commercials.

"Lily, it's break," James said from across the common room, "and two days before Christmas for that matter, why are reading?"

I closed my book smiling, "I can't help it, I like reading."

Sirius suddenly screamed, "Book lover! Hide!" And dove behind a couch. He'd done this every time I said I liked reading for the last five days.

I rolled my eyes, "Is he ever going to stop doing that?"

Remus answered, "He's been doing it to me since first year, so I wouldn't count on it."

It was quiet for about ten seconds before James loudly proclaimed, "I'm bored."

Sirius jumped out from behind the couch, "Me too. Moony?"

"Bored to death. And you Wormtail?"

"Bored stiff."

"Lily?" James asked.

"I guess I am since you guys won't let me read." I answered setting my book aside. This led to a long silence. Finally I broke it, "So what do you want to do?"

James said, "I don't know, what do you want to do Padfoot?"

"I don't know, what do you want to do Moony?"

"I don't know, what do you want to do Wormtail?"

"I don't know, what do you want to do Prongs?"

"I don't know, what do you want to do Padfoot?"

"Stop!" I yelled realizing we weren't getting anywhere, "If you don't have an idea just be quiet."

Longest silence yet, Peter sat cross-legged in front of the fire, Remus perched in a chair next to Peter, Sirius was leaning thoughtfully against a couch, and James leaned on a nearby wall staring into space. I started going through games in my head, but we had played every game that came to mind in the last few days.

"Chess?" Remus asked.

We all shook our heads, Sirius said, "We did that two days ago." Another silence.

"Tic tac toe?" Peter asked. We shook our heads again, we just couldn't imagine actually having fun playing tic tac toe. In fact, James said it was a bad idea, and Sirius threw a pillow at him that landed in the fire. So then we had to put the fire out. Another long silence followed.

Suddenly James snapped his fingers, "I got it!" We all just stared at him until he shared his idea, "Truth or dare."

At this we all smiled, this could be used to do two things, to find out stuff about the Marauders and to see the Marauders do stupid things. We all quickly agreed in the 'I want to, how about you, ' format the Marauders enjoyed using. We cleared furniture off the rug in front of the fire and sat in a circle. We decided James got to go first because it was his idea in the first place.

"Lily, truth or dare?" James asked smirking. I thought of all the things he might make me do if I said dare.

"Truth."

His smirk widened into a grin, "What was the real reason Snivellous left you at the Halloween Ball?"

I sighed, it couldn't hurt to tell them, "I found out that night that he…" I couldn't finish the sentence remembering how he was such a liar.

"That he what?" Sirius said.

I chewed my lip and finished, "I found out that he got the Dark Mark this Summer."

"You mean Lord Voldemort's dark mark?" James asked in disbelief, I nodded, "So that's why you've been giving him the cold shoulder."

It was Sirius' turn, "Moony, truth or dare?"

"Dare."

Sirius got a look on his face that could only be explained as evil, "I dare you to throw a raw egg at Evans."

"What?" Me and Remus exclaimed simultaneously, Remus elaborated, "You want me to throw a raw egg at Lily! She used the bat bogey Hex on James just for asking to play a game of chess with her!"

Sirius smirk just widened, "A dare's a dare Moony." Remus scowled and apologized twelve times before actually getting the egg (they had to get it from one of the house elves in the kitchen), five more times before throwing it at me, and one more time before I threatened to hex him if he apologized one more time.

Once I had de-egged myself it was Remus' turn, "Sirius-"

"Actually, dare-backs aren't allowed." Sirius interrupted.

"You just made that up," Remus muttered under his breath, "Peter, truth or dare."

"Truth," Peter answered quickly.

Remus shrugged, "What do you see when you see a boggart?"

"Cats," He said quietly, and the three Marauders all began laughing softly, I didn't really get it.

Then it was my turn, and I had planned on getting revenge for both me and Remus, "Black, truth or dare."

He looked amused, "Dare, obviously."

Perfect, "I dare you to go outside and make a snow angel," He and the other Marauders snorted, but I wasn't finished giving my dare, "shirtless."

The laughing ceased, "What?"

I smiled, "You heard me, make a snow angel shirtless."

Sirius looked seriously upset by this, "Do you know how cold it is out there? No way I'm doing this."

"I do know how cold it is, I also know that I may never get some of this egg out of my hair, and like you said, a dare's a dare."

Sirius Black had never backed down from a dare, and he didn't now. The entire Gryffindor house (me, Remus, James and Peter) followed him down to watch. It took him about five minutes to make a satisfactory snow angel, especially since James had insisted it wasn't deep enough. Remus asked him if he was going to mess with me again soon, he replied that he wasn't sure he was ready for the wrath of a red head.

When we got back to the common room Sirius was quick to claim the seat closest to the fire. I felt kind of bad for him, but then I found a piece of egg in my hair. It was Peter's turn, "Truth or dare James?"

"Dare." James replied nonchalantly.

Peter thought for a moment of a dare good enough for one of his heroes, as Remus had explained, "I dare you to dye your hair bright red until Midnight on Christmas."

James waited a minute then took his wand out and changed his hair color to a shade of red comparable to ketchup. James didn't seem to bothered by it and even asked Peter it was the right shade, Peter was awed beyond words and just nodded.

It was James' second turn, he picked his victim, "Remus, truth or dare?"

"Dare," Remus sighed.

James gave a sly smile, "I dare you to go poke Macnair."

Remu stared at him. Macnair was famous for being quick to hex anyone who annoyed him, and hated being touched, "You aren't very nice Prongs."

James just chuckled, "I don't recall telling you I was." In the end Remus did poke Macnair, but all Macnair did was roll his eyes and mutter 'Gryffindors' under his breath. We ended up going around our little circle eight times with few mentionable truths or dares. We did get Peter to randomly scream at dinner and when asked by McGonagall why he was screaming to claim the dustbunnies were trying to kill him. The two truths that should be mentioned were important.

"Hey Remus, truth or dare?" I asked at about nine at night.

"Truth." He answered after going through five rough dares, having to do with bread crust, a newspaper pirate hat, two owls, five licorice wands and a tube sock.

"Where do you guys go every full moon, and what do you do there?"

The Marauders all seemed shaken, and after looking to James and Sirius, who nodded, he answered, "Well, to start with, you should know I'm a werewolf. The other three are animagi and sneak out to keep me company in the Shrieking Shack."

I took a minute to absorb what he had said, "Your nicknames make sense, Moony for a werewolf. And Peter, he's afraid of cats, you call him Wormtail, is he a rat? Padfoot… some kind of dog? Prongs… I still don't get Prongs."

Peter nodded, he was a rat. Sirius transformed into his animagus form, he was a large black dog. He walked up and began licking my face, I hit him with afore mentioned newspaper pirate hat. James shook his head, "You seriously don't get Prongs?" I shook my head, he said he'd have to show me what 'Prongs' was.

He moved into a larger area and his transformation began, and in a few seconds a large animal. It was white, it had antlers, and looked rather graceful. I suddenly figured it out and I announced, "You're a doe!"

Sirius began singing behind me, "A deer, a female deer, ray, a drop of golden sun, me, a name I call myself, fa-"

He was interrupted by James turning into a human and throwing a book at him. He was blushing a little, which clashed horribly with his red hair, "I'm not a doe, I'm a stag."

"Sorry."

The other mentionable truth was the last question. Sirius had picked me to be his victim for that time around, I had picked truth. He thought for about five minutes, and all the while Wormtail, Moony and Prongs were humming the music for jeopardy, "What was the big deal with the letter you got on, what was it, the nineteenth?"

I inhaled hard. I didn't want to tell anyone about Maia, but surely they'd figure it out eventually when school was back I session. I fought back tears, "The letter was from the ministry informing me that the Dark Mark had appeared over a small house outside of Liverpool, where Maia lives…"

"So," Peter said dumbly.

"The Dark Mark is Voldemort's insignia, he puts it up over the houses of people he kills, seriously Peter, get a clue." James snapped, then looked at me sadly, "So, Maia's… you know?"

"Dead?" I finished, "yeah. I think I'm going to go to bed now." I really didn't want to talk about Maia being dead.

"I'm sorry for your loss.." James said quietly, but I was halfway up the stairs.

I had been quiet all morning, I knew if I talked the Marauders would bring up her death. I tried to be happy though, it was Christmas Eve after all. At about midmorning Professor McGonagall found us in a corridor on the third floor playing with a small blue bouncy ball Remus had found in his trunk. McGonagal got our attention by summoning the ball, she strictly said, "Since there are so few of us at Hogwarts this Christmas it has been decided to make tonight's feast somewhat of a formal occasion, so we would.. we would… we… Potter, your hair?" Once her eye had caught sight of his hair she seemed to blank on everything else.

James cocked his head to the left, his hair was still red, "What about my hair, professor?" Man, he had to have guts to say that.

"It's not the way it usually is." She said, befuddled.

"How so?" By now me, Remus, Sirius and Peter were fighting our urge to laugh.

"You're hair is usually black, isn't it?"

"Don't know, I can't usually see it," Which was a lie because his hair was in his eyes constantly.

"Why is your hair red Potter?" She asked.

"It's red?" James asked.

She finally gave up, "Anyway, we would like you to dress up, and behave, that means no repeats of the Great Hogwarts Food Fight, got it Black?"

"Yes ma'am." Sirius said trying not to all out laugh.

"As you were…" She said walking away, and as soon as she was out of earshot the five of us began laughing, Sirius was even rolling on the floor.

The Christmas dance went well, and there were no food fights, much to Sirius' chagrin. When there was dancing James asked if I would dance with him, I asked why he'd want to dance with me, "Because one, I've liked you since first year, and two, no one should be alone on Christmas." I let him lead me out on the dance floor and we danced a few songs, but mainly talked with the other Marauders. James was growing on me, there was a twang of sadness when I thought of Maia smirking and saying, "What happened to rather being with a one-legged decapitated troll?"

Christmas morning I had four presents, I never had really gotten many. The first was from my parents, a family cookbook, the next from my sister, a small pouch of lily seeds, she gave me lilies of some form every holiday, it was her only sense of humor. The last was from… James? I looked at him across the room, he was blushing. I read the attached note: _Lily, along with this present I would like to spend a day at Hogsmeade with you, if you want to, that is. As a, you know, date? James Potter_. I opened the present, three books, two were written by wizards I'd never heard of, the other was the complete works of William Shakespeare. I ran over and hugged him telling him thank you for the books and accepting the trip to Hogsmeade.

The last present was tagless, I opened it and my smile quickly faded. I picked up the thin silver chain and held it between my thumb and forefinger. It sparkled brightly in the bright common room, and the light made the blue oval at the end shine brilliantly. I wanted to puke. Maia had let me wear it early, but insisted that I unwrap it Christmas morning. She had made a deal with the elves to have it delivered. I was holding a present from a dead girl.

I couldn't help it, I was crying, it was then I made a decision. I walked up, crying, to James, he asked what was wrong, I told him about the necklace. He realized what it symbolized. I handed it to him.

"You want me to get rid of it?" He asked softly.

"No," I said looking into his brown eyes, the ones I used to loathe, "I want you to put it on me. I'll wear it everyday for the rest of my life in her honor." James nodded.

He undid the clasp and moved behind me, I held my hair out of the way as he struggled with the clasp, but finally got it. I felt the cold oval on my skin, Maia's memory was painful, but if I hadn't had the Marauders, especially James, I would be in much worse shape. I guess after chasing me for seven years, James' patience finally payed off.

Chapter Eight completed. Lily is finally in love with James, but the story isn't over yet, there will be two more chapters, probably long chapters. What madness is to come, the world may never know, until I post it. That sounded _soooooo _much better in my head. Please respond! (lemonbomber leaves to go eat fishy crackers)


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter nine, I feel sad, I'm going to miss writing this. And if you can't figure out which chapter Lily and James fall in love during, I strongly encourage you to go back and read chapters seven and eight. After this only one Chapter left, This pretty much goes over the end of the seventh year at Hogwarts. This includes Lily's reaction to Snape's return, a rather interesting quidditch match, and…what's this? Are the Marauders crying? Fairly long, but hopefully worth it, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own three Harry Potter video games, the first four movies, all seven books in hard cover, and 1 and 4 in paperback, but I do not own the rights to Harry Potter.

…

It is Mid-February, everything has fallen into a rhythm. Every morning I get dressed and carry Maia's necklace down to the common room where James puts it on, he's gotten a lot better at it too. We go to our classes, hang out during free period and after school, during Quidditch practice Remus and Peter and I do our homework or just hang out. And I did go to Hogsmeade with James, twice. And it wasn't one of those fluffy dates, or one of those dates you spend the whole time snogging. We just talked like friends. Though there have been a few times that I was temporarily insane, like when I saw Snape for the first time after Maia was killed.

It was during free period, the four of us were walking out side (not Sirius because he had gotten detention, big surprise) and I saw Snape, so I made an excuse to leave and caught up with Snape. I took a moment to calm down before talking to him, "Severus."

He jumped, "Lily? You're talking to me again? Where's Maia?"

I felt relieved, he hadn't killed her, he didn't even know, "No, I'm not talking to you again."

He looked confused, "Then why did you come over?"

I swallowed hard, it was never easy telling someone that someone they knew was dead, "I thought you should know some of your friends killed Maia."

"What?" He cried, "Maia's dead?"

"The Dark Mark was even over her house, she died on the eighteenth. Your friends did this, probably Avery, you see why they aren't good people." I was having a hard time with the fact he may have already killed for his precious Dark Lord.

"Are you okay?" He said weakly, "I mean, she was your best friend."

"I'm dealing with it, my boyfriend has been really supportive and has cheered me up a lot since her death."

"Boyfriend?" Snape said sadly, I knew he had always fancied me, "Who?"

"James." His shoulders fell, our conversation was over. I walked back to my friends and never spoke of the conversation again. But it wasn't the last time I told anyone of Maia's death, which was rather unfortunate. They called Maia's name for attendance in each of my classes every day, I stared sadly at the desk while the Marauders watched sadly until one day I couldn't take it anymore.

It was potions class, which was far more annoying than the others because Slughorn couldn't just say 'Maia,' he had to elaborate on her finer points which bugged me. We were about two weeks back into classes when I lost it.

Slughorn was going down his list, "And the magnificent Maia, best keeper in the school?" He asked with a flourish, he was nicer to her because like several of us are, she too was a member of the slug club.

"No she's not." I said loudly, which caused Peter to jump and nearly fall out of his chair.

Slughorn looked surprised, "And why would that be Ms. Evans?"

I saw Snape purposefully stare at the wall on the other side of the room than I was on, "She isn't here because she is dead, she was killed by death eaters."

Slughorn was speechless and the entire class (minus Snape of coarse) was staring at me in awed silence, Slughorn cleared his throat, "I am sorry for your loss, I knew you were close to her Ms. Evans, and I will alert the other teachers so you won't have to make this proclamations in class any more, now where was I…."

As he had promised the teachers never called her name again, but some did give me sympathetic looks, Sprout even asked if I needed a girl to talk to. I said no. Quickly. The teachers are still getting to the fact I don't look like I'm grieving and the fact that me and James are getting along. Heck, I'm still getting used to it.

Today was warm for Winter, but cold for Spring, the sun was out and that's all I cared about. I was doing some rather dull reading in an old untitled book from the library about successfully using a patronus charm. Remus was trying hard to get Peter to understand the transfiguration homework to no avail, Sirius and James were at Quidditch practice. Then they came in.

James followed by only five of his players stormed in angrily, the smallest that I knew to be the seeker asked, "What are we going to do about the match next week?"

James' shoulders were slumped, "Hopefully he get better in time-"

"You heard Madam Pomfrey, he won't be able to leave the hospital wing, and won't be well enough for Quidditch for at least two weeks." A skinny fourth year chaser said.

"What about our third, that cowardly second year, Fletcher I think?" James asked running his hand worriedly through his hair.

"He was pulled at Christmas because of You-Know-Who." The boy I recognized as Crius replied.

"Damn," James swore under his breath, then louder announced, "Give me some time to think about this, I'll figure something out."

They all dispersed, Sirius went over to Remus to beg for homework help and James sat next to me. I could see through his glasses that his eyes were closed in concentration, and after a minute he began softly hitting his head against the wall behind him muttering 'think… think… think….' Over and over, but I stopped him, "What's wrong?"

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, it didn't help the perpetual mess his hair always was, the mess I had grown quite fond of. He answered in a fairly flat tone, "Well, since Maia is… unable to play… we've had this little guy subbing for her. He had some slight sickness he was getting over, but he was a good keeper nonetheless. Anyway, today he took a bludger to the head from about two hundred or more feet in the air and was knocked off his broom. Madam Pomfrey says that from his injuries he can't play for two weeks."

He sighed again before continuing, "This wouldn't be half the problem if his back-up was here, a little guy that gives me the creeps and spends too much time worrying about bludgers, his name is Mundungus Fletcher or something, but he's been pulled because old Voldie is on the rise. So if I don't come up with a Keeper soon we forfeit our next game, it's against Slytherin."

I knew how much this upset him, losing to Slythierin would be a disgrace in his mind. I wanted them to lose because Avery, who I suspected was Maia's killer, was on the team as a chaser. "So you can't think of any other Keepers?"

He shook his head wearily. I began thinking about during the Summer when me, Maia and Severus would take turns playing Quidditch because we only had two brooms, Maia said I was almost as good a Keeper as she was, but after the incident with the bludger I wasn't looking forward to getting any closer to a bludger than I had to. Unfortunately, one other person knew about this, and he couldn't keep his mouth shut if his life depended on it.

"You know what Maia told me before she… uh… you know?" The bigmouthed Black said as he sauntered up to James and me, "Apparently a certain Evans isn't too shabby on a broomstick."

If James hadn't been there I might have hexed Sirius for getting me involved in this, but James just rose an eyebrow, "You play Quidditch?" I nodded blushing.

James seemed shocked, "And you didn't say anything?" Then he looked to Sirius, "Why didn't you say something about this earlier?" We both answered by shrugging.

"Then you can play!" James and Sirius exclaimed excitedly.

I frowned, "I never said I would play."

They looked crest-fallen, "Please Lily, we can't lose to Slytherin," "You know what they did to Maia."

After half an hour of their incessant begging I agreed, though I don't know which swayed me more. The fact I would be, in a small way, avenging my best friends death. Or perhaps I could no longer stand seeing James and Serius crying on their hands and knees all out begging for my help.

We had practices during free period the next seven days before the Quidditch match. Every player gave me pointers at one point or another, and I believe that I frustrated James a lot with my lack of experience. He even shook his head at the end of the last practice, I asked him if I was disappointing him. He sighed and said, "You'll do alright."

…….

The morning of the match I was sitting in the locker room with Maia's old Quidditch robes on thinking I must have been daft to agree to do this. However I didn't, I was doing this for James, the phrase _love makes you do crazy things_ never seemed more appropriate. James called us over for a short pep talk before the match. We all sat on benches while he stood and talked.

"Okay, we're going to go out there and do our best, but I have a bit of a different goal for the game then usual, instead of trying to mercilessly beat Slytherin-"

"With their own bloody stump of an arm.." Crius and Sirius added knowing the game against Slytherin pep talk by heart. I jumped at his.

James ran his hand through his hair, yet again, "yeah, but this time our goal is not to be humiliated by the other team. Sirius, Crius, less fouls and a little more coverage on the Keeper might help, we need Lily to concentrate on the quaffle. Squishy (the Seeker's nickname, self chosen), try not to be so afraid of the other team's seeker, he can't hurt you without a foul being called. Chasers, and I include myself too, let's keep the passes short, the longer the pass the better chance we lose the quaffle. Lils, just do your best."

The Gryffindor team walked out onto the huge Quidditch pitch, James in front of me, Sirius in back. Apparently I looked pretty shaken, because Sirius whispered, "Don't worry, if you suck it's not like the whole school will know," I gave a miserable laugh, the whole school was watching the game, but it barely cheered me up. He then whispered, "Once the match starts you'll barely notice them." I hoped he was right. James shook Macnair's hand for a long minute to the point I was sure one of them would break the other's hand, and before I knew it I was in the air and had caught the quaffle in Slytherin's attempt to score, I threw it to one of the chasers I didn't know, who passed it to James, who passed it back, then it went to the third chaser, back to James, then through the hoop to score.

I continued to stop the quaffle from proceeding through any of my hoops, which I guess isn't too surprising since I was always a good soccer goalie. For about twenty minutes the game continued, Slytherin only scored two goals. Then I realized three balls were coming at me quick, the quaffle, a bludger, and the snitch followed by two seekers, "Evans!" I heard and my head snapped to see Sirius' beater bat flying at me, and I caught it realizing what he wanted me to do.

The quaffle was nearest, I hit it with my head and it went straight to James who caught it. Next I had to duck out of the Seekers' ways so they could get the snitch. Now I just had to deal with the bludger, that was now following me like a heat seeking torpedo. I swept my arm at the bludger feeling clumsy with the beater bat in it, and not completely understanding what it was like to hit a bludger. My entire arm reverberated as I hit the black ball that went straight for Avery and hit him in the arm, I then jumped because there was suddenly loud cheering behind me. Apparently Squishy had caught the Snitch, final score: Gryffindor – 220, Slytherin – 20.

The party in the common room was awesome, everyone considered me the hero of the game because if I hadn't hit the bludger it would have hit Squishy in the head seconds before he caught the snitch. James told me he knew I was a great Keeper all along, but for the sake of the game he wanted me to think I needed to try hard. When James asked if I would play the last game against Pufflehuff… er, Hufflepuff I agreed immediately. We won that game by three hundred and ten points winning us the Quidditch cup.

We also won the house cup at the end of the year, and then McGonagal announced the top students of the seventh year that were leaving school, Me and James. We hugged when it was announced. She said the ministry was going to get a great witch in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and an outstanding Auror. I blushed and told her that it was going to be two Aurors. She and Dumbledore didn't seem surprised like anyone else.

We walked out of the castle at the end of the feast and the five of us soon to be Aurors waved good-bye to Hogwarts, where we lived the majority of the last seven years. Where we learned magic, played Quidditch, pranks and an interesting game of truth or dare. This was where friends were made, two were lost, one forever, and where so much had changed in one year, I had gone from hating to loving James. I was pleased.

So in the end what should have been a good year was a great year.

…………

Is it the end? Is it finally over? Technically yes, but I will be writing an epilogue that Harry and Ginny will be in, Deathly Hallows spoilers too, though not many. Anyway, since this is the end please respond, but be nice, no flamers, and have a nice day, I hope you don't fall in a pit. (At the bottom of a pit, "It's dark down here! Get me out! Lemonbomber's muffled yell came).


	10. Epilogue

Well, it's done, over, fin. This is just an Epilogue for what should have been a good year and I hope you have enjoyed reading this half as much as I enjoyed writing it, and I will be writing many more fics, so check up every once in a while to see what I have in store for you, Meanwhile….

Disclaimer: I haven't owned Harry Potter for the last nine chapters and I certainly don't now.

………

Soon after school Lily, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter all became Aurors at the Ministry, as did Frank Longbottom, and a year later Alice. Six months into their jobs as Aurors the six(the Marauders, plus Lily and Frank) were approached by their former headmaster Albus Dumbledore after work, he asked to speak to them in private. They were told to come to an old abandoned shack in Northern England.

Dumbledore spoke in his usual grave yet calm voice, "As some of the Ministry's finest Aurors I have no doubt that you have all noticed that Lord Voldemort's power is escalating and the Ministry does little about it." The five nodded grimly, the Ministry wouldn't let the Prophet print a word to 'keep up morale,' but everyone knew the reasons for the deaths.

Dumbledore continued, "So I have decided to pick a few people I trust, that I know want Voldemort to fall, to create an alliance against Voldemort."

"And you're asking us to join?" Remus asked for the simple fact that he could put the question into words fastest.

"Yes, you are not obligated to join, but I will not give you major details unless you are." Dumbledore replied evenly.

The six looked to each other with grim looks in their eyes, and nodded one at a time. Lily was last and spoke proudly, "We want to help, it's what we thought we'd be doing as Aurors, but the Ministry…"

"Don't worry, I believe that the group I have compiled will be a formidable force against the Dark Lord…" He went on to list others in his group called 'The Order of the Pheonix' such as Molly and Arther Weasley, the head of the Auror department Mad-Eye Moody, Edgar and Amelia Bones, Dumbledore's brother Aberforth and quite a few others.

The Order did a lot more against Voldemort than the Ministry dared to, so eventually Order members quit being Aurors and worked full time for the Order. And after a larger battle against Voldemort in which the Dark Lord himself turned up in person was won by the order there was a small celebration where James proposed to Lily. She accepted of coarse, and planning the wedding took up all the time the two weren't working or sleeping.

When it came time to pick a best man and maid of honor the two choices were made quickly. Sirius Black was to be the best man, but the maid of honor was shocking, Lily had told James when he asked, "Maia Cronus."

"What?" He exclaimed, "But she's… dead. How can you have a dead person be your maid of honor.

Lily pulled out a framed head shot of Maia, her long black hair curled around her face and her blue eyes sparkled as she smiled out at Lily, "This is how."

James ran his hand through his hair and slowly said, "You seriously want your maid of honor to be a picture."

"Yes," She said stubbornly, "Do you have a problem with that?"

James shook his head, he'd given up, when Lily was stuck on something, she was _stuck_, "It's your wedding."

At the wedding in the picture that was supposed to be with the bride, groom best man and maid of honor had the first three. Then Remus used Wingardium Leviosa to have Maia's picture float next to Lily, who still wore Maia's necklace around her neck. They were better off not knowing in less than two and a half years they would be dead.

…….

20 years Later….

It was the night before their wedding, Harry was a nervous wreck. There would be very few people sitting on the grooms side during the wedding, Hagrid, McGonagal, Luna, Neville, Teddy and his grandparents, and a couple others from the D.A.. Ron was to be his best man, Hermione the maid of honor. Ginny sat across the room reading a book about Quidditch while he looked through pictures of other people's weddings, and when he got to his parents' wedding he made a face.

"Curious," He said as he cocked his head to the side.

Ginny looked up at her soon to be husband, "What's curious?"

"In all of the wedding pictures if the best man is in a picture so is the maid of honor." He said in a far off voice he used when he was completely focused on something and was talking.

"Yeah, that's how it usually goes, what's so curious about it?"

He pulled the picture bothering him out of the album and carried it over to Ginny, "Notice anything strange?"

It was just Lily, James and Sirius, "No maid of Honor, I never heard of them having one either."

He sighed, "That's part of it, but look at that." He pointed to the area next to his mother, there was a picture frame floating.

"Perhaps a Marauder prank?" Ginny suggested.

Harry shook his head, "It's in every picture, notice the picture's of a woman, I think the picture is the maid of honor."

Ginny gave him a look like he was crazy, "Who in their right mind would have a _picture_ as the maid of honor?!" She exclaimed.

Harry took the picture back, "Apparently my mum."

END

………

That's it, it's over (cries). Well I sincerely hope you enjoyed it, the epilogue was based off the fact we never heard who Lily's maid of honor was. And I already have two ideas for one-shots in my head, so if you like my writing look for them in about a week or so. Reiews would really be appreciated, just remember, if you have nothing nice to write in a review, don't write a review at all. Thank you for taking the time to read this. END


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